Blood Ties

28

Moonless
~
Accalia
~

Accalia skidded around the corner, close enough to smash into the nearby wall but that didn't stop her. There was only anticipation in her steps.

Dashing down the hall, his towering frame came into view but just as she saw him, he took a right.

"Lycus, stop avoiding me." Accalia hissed like a viper.

Lycus retracted his steps, whipping around the corner and sneered, "What? What do you want?"

Ignoring the peeving frustration Accalia was developing toward him, she strode up to him and  poked him in the chest. "Now who's avoiding who?"

A week had passed since Erisa met Cole, a week since everyone gathered the Alpha had developed a crush on the huntress and with coming up empty-handed, they only had the heartstrings of his emotions to use to their advantage.

Nothing but incessant training and preparation had been put into every passing day.

Accalia felt stronger, her back stronger and pain lessening like it was never there to begin with. She trained with Tala, then Cadence and even Erisa.

Only Lycus hadn't batted her an eye this entire week, completely and stubbornly ignoring her like she didn't exist.

It reminded Accalia of the days they were truly enemies and it cut deeper than a claw into her skin ever could.

"Go away, you smell funny."

Accalia's mind went blank and she giggled, covering her mouth. "Are you being serious right now? You sound like a five-year-old, Lycus."

Lycus stepped away from her, nose crinkling. "I'm being deadly serious. You smell cheap, too much perfume and it's washed out your natural scent. I don't like it."

Accalia rolled her eyes, wanting to say that was the whole point but the doubt on him, how pained he looked, she reigned herself in. "I'll have a shower when I get back. Will you want to be around me then?"

"No."

Accalia crossed her arms and glared. "If it will make you feel any better, Lycus, I can leave if you want me to."

She went to stalk away from him, knowing she was keeping her family members and Rexton waiting. They needed to get to the pack quickly, Erisa was already heading to the bar and time would soon run out.

"You want to know why I locked Rexton away all those years ago?"

The question caused Accalia to plant her feet to the floor.

She wasn't so sure she wanted to know, not right now, not with that look that transpired beyond his words. An eminent, dreading emotion that bled through his face as if he would be meeting death.

"I don't—"

"Because something was after my brother, Accalia. Ever since he was a baby, an oracle would find me and foresee my brother's life every year near his birthday. Different words, different prophecies she spoke, but all the same: something was after my brother and wanted to take him from me. That's why I locked him away, that's why I faked his death."

Accalia's body slumped against the wooden wall and she felt so heavy she could crumble.

Lycus's incessant need to control, his every desire to have everything his way and his controlling decision to keep Rexton hidden and isolated from the outside world.

Lycus did this to protect Rexton not only from himself, or the lycans and werewolves but because something was after him.

"And you didn't know what or who it was?" Accalia found her voice after a moment.